Phone Briefing: Shaping the Fate of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

WASHINGTON, June 18, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Thursday, June 20, at 10 a.m. EDT, The Pew Charitable Trusts will host a media phone briefing on critical upcoming decisions for western Atlantic bluefin tuna – a population that is just 36 percent of what it was in 1970. Fisheries managers and scientists from around the world could shape the fate of this iconic species when they meet next week in Canada.

This meeting in Montreal from June 26-28 will set the stage for international negotiations to set catch limits for western Atlantic bluefin this year and beyond. It will also be the first signal of whether fisheries managers will choose to follow sound science and let this severely depleted population recover or ignore precaution and return to crippling levels of overfishing. Canada, host of this meeting, has been one of the most vocal advocates for taking a riskier approach and increasing the quota to maximize short-term economic gain.

Tuna experts will provide an overview of key issues to be debated at the meeting. A question-and-answer session will follow brief opening remarks by the speakers.

WHAT:
Phone briefing on western Atlantic bluefin tuna

WHEN:
Thursday, June 20 at 10 a.m. EDT

WHO:

• Amanda Nickson – director of Global Tuna Conservation at The Pew Charitable Trusts (moderator)
• Dr. Andrew Rosenberg – director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists 
• Dr. Susanna Fuller – coordinator of Marine Conservation at the Ecology Action Centre (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

CALL LOGISTICS:
U.S. +1 800-311-9402
Canada +1 888-259-2914
France 0800906627
Spain 900957682  
Toll number +1 334-323-7224

Password: tuna

This briefing is for credentialed media only. An audio file of this call will be posted to www.PewEnvironment.org.

Pew's global tuna conservation campaign web site has links to additional information on Atlantic bluefin tuna.

CONTACT: Dave Bard, +1 202-486-4426, [email protected]

SOURCE The Pew Charitable Trusts